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Public participation in democracy
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Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally in the proposal, development, and creation of laws. Under this system legal equality, freedom, and rule of law are all important characteristics, and since the 20th century, waves of democracy have brought important gains towards true liberal democracy for many nations. There are two important components that are necessary for the legitimacy of democracy. The first, participation, advocates for the inclusion and equal participation in competitive and free elections. The second is the accountability of the government, civil servants and politicians to the public and to legislative bodies, and it calls for transparency of governance, and the free flow of information. With this definition in mind, is it really possible to describe all democratic states of the 21st century as true democracies? One of the basic, fundamental principles of democracy is the participation of all eligible citizens, but in many ‘democracies’ women are underrepresented in elected positions, their interests are overlooked in the development of public policies, and there their rights or needs have not been consistently protected (United Nations). The importance of the role of women in democratic processes has been acknowledged in the 2011 General Assembly resolution on Women’s Political Participation (A/RES/66/130), which reaffirms “that the active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy” (United Nations). But, despite this recognition, adequate progress in this area has not been made. Women still remain underrepresented, marginalized, and absent i...
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... the Quality of Democracy Matter for Women’s Rights? Just Debate and Democratic Transition in Chile and South Africa." Sage Journals 45.11 (2012): 1323-1350. Comparative Political Studies. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
Youngs, Gillian. "Feminist International Relations: a contradiction in terms? Or: why women and gender are essential to understanding the world 'we' live in." International Affairs 80.1 (2004): 75-87. JSTOR. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
United Nations. "Global Issues at the United Nations.." UN News Center. UN, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. .
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...cs should gain its value, and lastly people should vote because it is their responsibility. Moredish Conroy points out, “The traditional ruler view of women rejects the idea that femaleness and political power can coexist.” The traditional idea of what constitute leadership should be rejected. Bashevkin speaks that people must face their own internalized, often unrecognized feelings of discomfort with putting women in positions of power. This should change. Rationally, we all need to engage ourselves in politics because it contributes to our day to day activity. This book is a precondition to change because it promotes awareness by bringing change through monitoring the media, social movements, public opinions, electoral reforms, consensus building, collaboration, stronger motivation, and changing the rule of the game. This assures every citizen, every voice counts.
In the 1940’s, the United Nation Conference came together to resolve issues, in reference to women to establish a commitment at treating men; and women the same in an ecumenical way. From the 1940’s to the 1970’s many different conferences were held to overcome these issues regarding the gender roles of these women compared to those of men. “Under the banner of “equality, development and peace”, each conference assessed the programs of commitments made by various nations on behalf of women; along the side of the (NGO) that funded non-profit organization and spoke on behalf of the poor from all walks of life” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 137). These people are designed to affiliate on the process of diversity issues, to which they presented to these organizations on the importance of women in a changing world; which are “politics, religion, ethnicity, and economics” (Lindsey, pg.
...ies that the government, which majority consists of men, does not consider it as a significant matter. In order for this to move in the right direction, I feel that policy-makers and specialists would have to address the concerns that are disregarded of gender equality in nationality such as assuring women a safe future, as well as come up with public and official resolutions. Secondly, I find that the social movement needs a great support system from the policy-makers and those who set-up projects and lastly, in turn to promote discussions, acquire information, and extend useful approaches through networks must be established. As for the women’s civil society movement, initiating responsibilities as suppliers of useful information to policy-makers on their necessities, future approach and gender discrimination might support them to get their voices being heard.
Several forms of government have been formed since the development of centralized power. The form of government that has showed the most international growth in the last century is democracy. There are currently over 160 democracies in the world today. These democracies, however, are not complete democracies. They are representative democracies that have been created by the leaders of our predominantly patriarchal international system. Due to this, many citizens of these democracies are considered second class citizens and their views are not heard by their supposedly democratic society. A solution to this problem is participatory democracy. Participatory democracy is better than the existing patriarchal society because it allows the progression of society as a whole, eliminates political oppression, and creates a predominantly equal political culture for the citizens it governs. There is much evidence that proves that the advantages of participatory democracy heavily outweigh the drawbacks and that it is a better way of government than patriarchy. This evidence can be found in historical analysis, scrutiny of the patriarchal international system, the development of participatory democracy, and the values of a participatory democracy versus the values of a patriarchal democracy.
Women form half of the human beings inhabiting planet Earth. Since human rights are the rights of all human beings, male and female alike, human rights are women's rights. By the same token, a society in which men are not willing to extend human rights to their mothers, the women who bore and nurtured them; their daughters, products of their own loins; and their wives, the women who bear and raise their treasured sons, is a society in which men are unwilling to extend human rights to men of another family, tribe, language, religion, race, ethnic tradition, or nation. If a society does not hold justice and equality for all women in the highest regard, neither will it hold justice and equality for the many varieties of men in high regard. In a very real sense, women's rights are the basis of all human rights. Women's rights belong to women as members of the human family, and, as such, are not dependent either on a woman's marital status or on the number or sex of the children she has borne.
...action with others… especially men. This supplies final substantiation of the authors' argument, that women continue to be oppressed by their male-dominated societies. It is a bold undertaking for women to ally and promote a world movement to abandon sexist traditions. Although I have never lived in a third world or non-Westernized country, I have studied the conditions women suffer as "inferior" to men. In National Geographic and various courses I have taken, these terrible conditions are depicted in full color. Gender inequality is a terrible trait of our global society, and unfortunately, a trait that might not be ready to change. In America we see gender bias towards women in voters' unwillingness to elect more females into high office, and while this is not nearly as severe as the rest of the world, it indicates the lingering practice of gender inequality.
The current plight of poor democracy in various developing countries has however raised concerns in regards to just how effective the form of governance may be. Many developing worlds are in this day faced with numerous challenges as far as their democratic governance is concerned. True to this statement, other nations such as Chile has even been taken aback to forms of democracy that are greatly oppressive, begging the question as to whether there really is any democracy in such a state. Municipal and global entities alike, have taken initiative in an attempt to grasp a better understanding of what exactly are the key impediments to democratization in developing worlds, as discussed in this paper.
To understand a Feminist scholar’s perspective of security, there needs to be clarification of their understanding of International Relations. For an individual without knowledge of IR, they are accustomed “Such an approach helps focus attention on current and emerging threats to the security and well-being of individuals and communities” (UN 2014). Moreover, women are important when it comes to negotiating peace agreements, planning refugee camps, and peacekeeping operations, as well as reconstructing war-torn societies (UNIFEM 2004). A Feminist’s perspective in security studies challenges the focus on military solutions and pushes attention towards addressing structural problems, additionally, they believe in prevention rather than intervention; e.g. civilian solutions rather than military solutions. Feminist’s goals are to resolve issues within the state first.
Mao-Tse-Tung once said, “women hold up the sky” (Boulding et.al, 2012). Gender equality has become a global phenomenon that is recognized by international institutions, developing and developed countries that are key players in international development. Waves of feminist movements have resulted in the adoption of approaches that are geared towards; “Gender equality...the extent to which women are present in positions of political authority and decision making” (Boulding et al, 2012), which translates to women 's socio-economic and political participation in development. In the pursuit for equality, a more in depth focus is placed on undermined issues such as gender-based violence, gender division of labour, women empowerment
Patriarchy in politics, One of the major problems that persist in the world is that the physical presence of women's voices in positions of power and decision-making within political parties remain weak and almost non-existent. Although women participate actively and visibly support political parties and mobilized by the parties to join as members and for their vote in favor of parties through elections, their participation does not always guarantee inclusion in the decision-making in political parties and / or the public in general decision. Arguably skepticism about women's leadership and decision-making capacity is a common perception among the political parties because social norms dictate that politics is the domain of men.
... for granted. Therefore, it is without a doubt that the incorporation of gender would enrich international relations theory. Tickner, in her critique of Morgenthau has attempted to depict the gender-bias prevalent within the field. By building on Morgenthau’s founding principles in political realism and of international politics, Tickner makes an insightful contribution to the field of international relations by challenging pre-existing paradigms. She is open to Morgenthau’s masculine-embedded principles, and does not refute them but ultimately contends that for complete comprehension of international politics, masculine and feminine contributions must be equally represented. Without a feminist perspective, an incomplete picture of international politics is painted. Feminist perspectives improve our analysis, knowledge and understanding of international politics.
participation of women in the decision making process is an indicator of development of a democratic
This essay would argue that the use of the gender and development approach into the development processes, would be used to overcome the power gap between men and women in the global south and north, thus, achieving a degree of equality hereof, in the political, social and economic spheres.
The implementation of gender quotas in electoral politics is a mean to combat the democratic deficit that occurs when a social group is excluded from the political sphere due to structural or cultural reasons. Quotas are a form of affirmative action/positive discrimination which is meant to remove the structural and cultural obstacles that keep women out of the formal political ...
...n’s) social opportunities for good health and for participating in public life, it limits their ability to contribute to a country’s social and economic advancement. Moreover, given that women’s preferences and priorities can be different from men’s, gender issues that undermines women’s ability to participate in, say, government decision-making could mean that some significant public goods that would enhance society’s well-being may not get priority. Finally, the relative silence on gender inequality in society and in the media underlines the failure of transparency guarantees on this front. It can also be argued that, even if the state is trying to enhance such instrumental